Leopold König was one of the big losers in today's stage of the Tour of Britain. An untimely mechanical took the Czech out of GC contention.

Breakaway riders once again dominated today’s seventh stage of the Tour of Britain, which began in Camberley and ended in Brighton. This time Julien Vermote (Omega Pharma - Quickstep) won ahead of his fellow escapees Ignatas Konovalovas (MTN – Qhuebeka) and Dylan van Baarle (Garmin Sharp), whose third place finish was enough to take the yellow jersey. Team NetApp – Endura’s best rider today was Jan Barta, who finished 15th and moved up to 13th in the general classification.

“Leo had a mechanical one kilometer before the decisive climb. Paul [Voss] stopped to switch with him, and Daniel [Schorn] waited to help him as well. He then ended up headed up the mountain with a small deficit while the favorites at the front battled it out to move up in the general classification. Although Jan stayed up front and rode with the favorites, Leo only managed to get into Dowsett’s group. On the final climb, Leo attacked from his group to try to get into the group with the favorites. Then he got stuck between the groups, had some trouble and lost all chance of ever getting back up front. Our bad luck is a recurring theme throughout this tour. We haven’t made any mistakes and our guys are trying their best every day. I can’t blame them for the fact that luck hasn’t been on our side – sometimes phases like this just happen in sports,” Sport Director Enrico Poitschke said, summing up the penultimate day of the tour.

Like many other national tours, the 11th Tour of Britain will end tomorrow with a short sprint stage through the capital. Yet before the 88-km circuit race can get underway, the riders will have to complete a 9-km time trial through the heart of London, which is sure to make the outcome of the tour even more exciting.